Olympic Swim Trials - Part 1

Our day at the Olympic Swim Trials was fantastic! We spent most of the day at the Qwest Center in Omaha, and the only way I think we could've had a better time is if one of us was swimming.

The preliminary events were held at 11:00 am, and finals and semifinals were held during the evening session. In between those times, the AquaZone was open for spectators to explore.

When you walked into the AquaZone, you went through this sort of tunnel of an entrance.


Inside was a combination of educational exhibits, vendor demonstrations, and the Speedo swim shop.

Here, Braden's standing on a pad that's supposed to simulate the starting block. You line up with your toes on the edge, and when the light turns green, you jump. The pad measures your reaction time off the block.


Wow! Look how fast Braden is! He's all blurry! (I'm going to ignore the fact that the people standing around and the woman sitting in the chair are blurry too.)


We toured an exhibit about the new and controversial Speedo LZR Racer suit, and an exhibit on the evolution of the swimsuit. It was kind of fun seeing swimsuits that I remember from the Olympics in the 80s. We laughed at the teeny-tiny Speedos that racers used to wear, and we were both thankful that those are out of style! (Except for some men practicing at our local pool.)

Somehow Braden won a frisbee from Oroweat. I kid you not, we weren't 10 steps away from the Oroweat booth when the frisbee looked like this:


Here, Braden tested an underwater mp3 player. You fit the earbuds to your cheekbones, sort of in front of your ear. Then, Braden stuck his head into this tank to listen. You could hear the music as clear as a bell! It was fascinating!


We saw lots of people walking around the AquaZone wearing the competitor passes around their necks. As passed them, we wondered if they were someone we've heard of.

We knew that not only were there competitors walking around the AquaZone, but there was also a sort of reunion of past Olympic swimmers. We knew they were in the Qwest Center somewhere, but also knew that we'd never recognize them if we were standing next to them.

The problem with swimmers is that when when you see them, they usually look like this:




Or this:



You wouldn't necessarily recognize them while walking down the street. We spotted Matt Biondi, who graciously signed autographs for nearly 3 hours! But we only knew it was him because there was a sign.


Look! It's Matt Biondi!

The AquaZone was fun, and it was neat to see all of the equipment and coaching resources that are out there. We also watched the demonstration of how they built the pool inside the Qwest Center.

The next post will be more about the evening swim session!